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Everybody meet Beast Boy. The newest addition to our family. He’s an adorable little boy, a beautiful sandstone colored cat. We’ve been debating for a few weeks now if we were ready for another kitten. We had to put a kitten down a few months ago due to internal problems that were too intense to fix. I was going to discuss with Tony, the possibility of getting one from the next street over. They had a sign for free kittens, which is usually how we get them.

He instead brought home this little monster with him. We apparently had the same idea. He just skipped the discussion.

The little guy needed a bath, I get so annoyed with people who let kittens get so dirty and gross! I gave him the standard cat bath and while drying him, I found fleas all over him. Ugh!

We’ve lived here for eight years and never had fleas, we were not going to ruin the record now! I pulled up one of the pictures on my life hacks board, sadly no link to credit, and read that you combine:

•1 cup Dawn dish soap
•1 cup white vinegar
•4 cups warm water

It makes kind of a soupy mess, which I forgot to take a picture of. Then you scrub it into the fur and rub it in for about five minutes. The kitten did not deal well with this as his second bath in 15 minutes.

For cats I would recommend cutting it down to
•1/4 cup Dawn
•1/4 cup vinegar
•1 cup warm water
Although it was nice to have enough in the bowl to dip the kitten in.

At first, after rinsing and starting to dry him, I thought this was a failure. So sad! However, in a little under an hour, the fleas began working their way away from his skin, eventually falling off dead.
We did pick up flea collars for all of our little zoo, but now that it’s almost 24 hours later, I can’t find a single flea.

I will call this a big success, and it’s much cheaper than over the counter flea treatments. When trying this, don’t be discouraged if the fleas don’t fall off instantly, it does take a little time to kick in. It will also leave your pet fluffy and soft.

It’s been a little while since I’ve done a product plug, but I am amazed by the results of this, so of course I have to share my experience!
I originally saw an advertisement for this while browsing different Pinterest links, and thought, why not? My house is primarily hardwood floors, and I love it because it is easier to clean than carpet. The worst I get is clumps of pet hair that need vacuumed or swept up, but that’s the price I pay for owning a menagerie!
The only complaint I have is that the floors are old and worn, desperately in need of refinishing. However with kids and pets, it’s tough to find the time and money to do it. Aside from the fact that the pets and kids would have to be cleared out of the house while the floor seals dry. Not an easy task to do!

This is by far the worst part of my floor. This is right after a mopping with my trusty Murphy’s Oil. No shine left to this part, right outside my kitchen and the main walkway towards the side room and garage. It gets a lot of human and pet traffic.

This is the same section of floor after 3 coats of Quickshine! You sweep and regular mop your floor and remember to let it dry COMPLETELY!

If your floor is a little wet, you’ll end up like this sad section next to my front door, looking like it’s peeling.
After your floor is all the way dry, spray some Quickshine in an S-shape and use a microfiber cloth to spread it evenly over your floor. Use caution in your pattern though because you should let it sit for 30 minutes before walking on it. It’ll be good after 20 minutes, thank you Zuko for showing me, but the company does recommend 30.

This picture shows a better contrast of before and after. Right beside my shoes and the table leg was mopped only, but the shiny spots have two layers of Quickshine.
I also picked up a multi surface Quickshine, but haven’t tested it yet. I’m hoping it’ll give new life to my linoleum kitchen floors!
I’ve been informed Walmart carries the multi surface version, although my store didn’t carry it. The hardwood version I found at Home Depot.
Shine on everyone, shine on!

I have a plan for some of my children’s old baby clothes. I’m not crazy mommy that kept everything, but I did keep a few of my favorite outfits for the sake of keeping them, especially their coming home outfits. I also kept a few that had fun patterns or snarky shirts, for another Pinterest type of project. I was devastated when I pulled out the bags of clothes and there were stains. The clothes were clean when I put them away! My solution, as usual, was to turn to Pinterest!This pin explained that even if you put clothes away clean, enzymes from diaper blowouts and spit up can break down when stored and leave yucky yellow stains. Yuck! I was worried that my plan was doomed, until the original blogger explained how it can be cleaned.

All you need is OxiClean and water! I’ve used this product before, and while I’ve seen it help brighten clothes, I’ve never seen it remove stains this bad. Apparently there is a trick to using it! You start with your biggest pot, about half full of water. Boil the water, then add two scoops of OxiClean.

WARNING! Add the scoops slowly. Pour a little, let it bubble, pour some more. Yes it takes time, but if you drop one whole scoop at a time, you will get results like above, a bubbly, overflowing mess that is a pain to clean off your stove top!
After you’ve added your OxiClean, put your clothes in, ensuring that they all get soaked in the solution.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Just like with your laundry, you should separate whites, lights, darks and reds to prevent colors bleeding.
After your clothes soak for 5-10 minutes, dump the pot of water and your clothes into the washer and launder as normal.

In addition to the first picture, I had this onsie that had some epic stains come clean. Definitely something to remember if you have children. Let’s be honest, even adults need this tip for their own clothes. I have some work shirts that will be undergoing this treatment soon!
Any stains you need to ditch?

So I do want to start by saying that this was a huge let down! The original blog, which is no longer up, made this sound like it would work miracles. I was less than thrilled!
You know how your cookie pans get disgusting over time? Black and splotchy, just icky looking in general? Well I only have the one cookie sheet and it was looking pretty gross:

You see all the ick? It’s clean in this picture, but it sure doesn’t look it! The original blog said to make a paste, using baking soda and hydrogen peroxide. You want it to have the consistency of toothpaste. Once you have your paste, smear it on your cookie sheet. I tried this multiple times with different consistencies to try and make it work:

This was my super concentrated batch and do you know what I got? This:

This little circled bit, and that was after putting a lot of elbow grease behind it. The original blog stated that it would take very little scrubbing for amazing results…… As previously stated, huge let down!
Don’t waste your time on this one folks!

I tried 2 methods of this today, as I had 2 pinned. Both involved vanilla extract and promised to make your home smell like a bakery. I was a little disappointed with both, although it was fun to use my homemade vanilla extract! I have a few jars left over from last Christmas.

The first method requires a coffee cup and vanilla extract. Yes, that’s a happy bunny mug! You place 2 capfuls of vanilla extract in the mug and place in your 300° oven for 1 hour. It wasn’t working very well, so I added more vanilla, still no noticeable smell. I found this trick to try here.

Second method involves a small pan of water, vanilla extract and cinnamon. You simmer them together and the smell is supposed to spread throughout the house. The kitchen smelled pretty good with this one, but it didn’t really spread. For the life of me, I can’t remember where I found this idea, but if I find the link again, I’ll update the reference.
If you guys have any other tips, please let me know, because for right now, I’m back to my trusty candles. They make the whole house smell good, and all I have to do is light the wick!

Notice how beautiful and wrinkle free my shirt is? I sure as heck didn’t iron it! I hate ironing. Tony, in fact, does the ironing that needs doing, mainly because I refuse.
This morning was a bit busy. Before work, both kids had dentist appointments. Normally, I don’t mind a few wrinkles, as my vest covers them up, but I wasn’t going to wear the vest to the dentist. My shirt was really bad:

Embarrassing much? I knew I couldn’t wear this, and I knew I had a pin about getting wrinkles out fast.

Two ice cubes, the clothing that needs un-wrinkled, and 5-10 minutes in the dryer.
Seriously, that’s it! The original pin says 5 minutes, but the minimum on my dryer is 10, so that’s what I went with. As you can tell from the first picture, it worked like a charm. Even Tony was impressed!
Enjoy your laziness, don’t iron!

I imagine this would work with all bad smells in your carpet, but I know for sure that it will get cat urine smell out of a carpet.
I was recently in NC visiting my mom and dad, and they are the owners of three cats. One of them was my own sweet Neo, one is a demonic animal named Kenua they picked up in Hawaii and the other is Morpheus, who we adopted from a friend while I was still in school.
Morpheus has some issues. He hates change, he hates Kenua and I’m pretty sure he hates everyone except my parents. When faced with situations he is unhappy with, he pees. There was a patch of carpet near my parents fireplace that he routinely used. While there, I decided to try out a Pinterest tip that links back to http://www.getridofthings.com/pets/get-rid-of-cat-urine/
I adjusted a little bit, skipping a step as I didn’t feel it was necessary and I was correct. You start by blotting up any excess cat urine and ensuring the area is dry. I didn’t have to do this, as this was a lingering smell in the carpet.
Second step is to whip up a vinegar / water solution. 3 parts water – 1 part vinegar. Soak the area of carpet that smells. I didn’t have a spray bottle available to I poured my vinegar mixture over the area and scrubbed it into the carpet with a brush. I let it sit in the carpet until it was dry to the touch.
After its dry you sprinkle baking soda over the area and let it sit for 10-15 minutes. I ended up letting it go for 30 minutes, but it doesn’t really matter if you go over!
Once it has sat long enough, you just vacuum it up. After I was finished vacuuming I was down on the floor like I was in a Febreeze commercial. It was amazing! Not a whiff of cat urine!
If you have a smell sticking around your house from a frisky feline, try this! Get rid of that nasty smell and go back to loving everything about your cat!
Happy sniffing *finally*